Song of Mitt's Self

[Video Link] "The real Mitt Romney stands up and reflects on who he is, what he believes and why he is running for office."

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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The Snowden Principle

http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/ J. Brad Hicks

Actually, there is ONE (and, as far as I know, only one) issue on which Romney has been vocal, steadfast, determined, consistent, and unwavering. Mitt Romney believes that guys like Mitt Romney shouldn’t be paying any taxes. Everything else is negotiable. If saying one thing will get him closer to eliminating taxes on guys like Mitt Romney, that’s what he’ll say. If circumstances change and he has to say the exact opposite to protect his chance of advancement, he’ll say the opposite. It’s not because he’s lying (supposedly); it because on those issues, he really doesn’t care. Low or no taxes on the rich is his real issue, and he’ll sacrifice anything else to get to that all important goal.
MonkeyBoy

As amusing as this is, and as dumbfounded as some unsuspecting rightwingers may become who view this thinking it is real, the vid may have consequences.

Some on the right may take this as an excuse to fight fire with fire. Even now Romney has with “sauce for the gander” justified his campaign bus honking and disrupting democrat speaking engagements because the “other side” (I guess code pink or OWS) has heckled Republican speakers.
- chenille
  
  Some on the right may take this as an excuse to fight fire with fire.
  
  How many do you think have been holding back until someone gives them the excuse? It doesn’t seem as if American discourse is being driven by cute YouTube edits.
  
  Anyway, as someone who doesn’t watch these often, where is the music from? It’s really nice music for a campaign ad; it makes it seem like the guy would never harm a fly, let alone tie it to a car or cut off its hairs.
  - MonkeyBoy
    
    How many do you think have been holding back until someone gives them the excuse? It doesn’t seem as if American discourse is being driven by cute YouTube edits.
    
    Do you remember “The Left Calls Bush Hitler” which has been brought up a lot in “both sides do it” pandering? If pressed people will say that MoveOn said this when in actuality is was a submission to a contest MoveOn was running.
  - Hugh Atkin
    
    It’s some production music I licensed from audiojungle called “Think Happy Thoughts” – I did my early work on the video against Hans Zimmer’s score for True Romance and then spent a while searching online production music stores for “happy marimba music”. Lucked out when I found it.
    
    I’m glad people are generally liking the video. I was certainly sensitive to the nefarious uses to which this kind of technique could be put, but I don’t think that’s a new phenomenon – the technology is hardly new. I deliberately put some of the more silly lines (“like a mini-skirt”) at the beginning of the video so that viewers would realise what was going on.
    
    I think that Romney’s use of Obama saying “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose” without showing that he was quoting McCain reflects a more serious/prevalent problem than people making silly parody videos for YouTube.
    
    Anyhow, I’m working on an Obama video for good measure.
    
    Hugh
    - mobobo
      
      I was going to say it sounded like the True Romance score (and just did!) – great flick, great sound – i particularly enjoyed the scene between Hopper & Walken.Well done on the vid – it was the mini skirt line that got my antenna a waggling, but I think the balance of delivery overall very subtle which just adds to the whole for me. Parody too blatant becomes boring.
    - 666beast1
      
      Great job. For me at least this captures who Mitt Romney is (or isn’t).
    - ROSSINDETROIT
      
      “Anyhow, I’m working on an Obama video for good measure.” I’ll look forward to seeing that one as well. This video of Mitt makes him look silly, but what really identifies its creator as a liberal is that he’d do the same thing to the other side. Is there the slightest chance that a Right partisan would ever make a humorous video of his own candidate revealing his flaws?
    - Preston Sturges
      
      An edited Obama video? it would be pretty hard to top what the GOP has done there.
- Snig
  
  That attitude is possibly why Dukakis (Willie Horton), Gore (who lost at least partly to Karl Rove), and Kerry (swiftboat) lost. Read up on Karl Rove’s election strategies if you think the democrats are the dirty fighters.
  - pecoto
    
    Well, the democrats have already played an ad accusing Romney of being a murderer……I don’t think the bar can get any lower.
    - Snig
      
      He wasn’t accused of murder, just making business decisions that led to regional poverty, which resulted in people being afraid of accessing healthcare which then led to death. I think it’s certainly possible that happened. Biden has not suggested Mitt pals around with terrorists, and no senator or democratic front runner came up with anything as crazy as the birther conspiracy. I think that’s how low the bar has been set.
http://www.facebook.com/johnmendonca John Mendonça

I don’t usually make comments, but I was really disappointed to see this posted on boing. I certainly don’t support Romney, I just find this type of thing petty.

It’s simply dishonest despite the disclaimer.
- Tommy Timefishblue
  
  It would be more dishonest without edits.
- copperwatt
  
  How can parody be dishonest?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  First time commenter – ✔
  No e-mail available – ✔
  Empty FB account – ✔
  - http://twitter.com/writebastard Ian Wood
    
    Papers not in order? Well then.
  - http://twitter.com/MartianEmpress Rezeya Montecore
    
    God damn it, Antinous. Why don’t you just arrest him for mopery and get it over with.
  - http://vinnietesla.com/ Vinnie Tesla
    
    How do you do the cool checkmarks?
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Cut and paste from Wikipedia. I’ve never found a way to code a check mark.
    - Ipo
      
      ✓
      & # 1 0 0 0 3 ; without spaces.
      or 10004; for heavy.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        That doesn’t work for me.
    - http://profiles.google.com/jwbaker Jeffrey Baker
      
      You mean like these: √√√√√√?
      
      It’s just option-v, on a Mac.
- Snig
  
  If you dislike petty, you really shouldn’t read anything political.
- http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy
  
  John I don’t think you are a troll, but how is parody dishonest? Further, how is accurate parody dishonest? Romney is incredibly ambiguous on most any issue and contradictory on more than a few.
  
  So how is pointing it out in parody dishonest?
  - Snig
    
    I would agree with this. I don’t feel bad for liking Colbert, though I’m aware there are likely people foolish enough not to immediately realize it’s parody.
Mister44

I need to run this through Bablefish’s Doublespeak filter.
- orangedesperado
  
  Be careful, you’ll break it if you do that !
John Smith

I voted for Obama and I got Hope and Change. The change was, I used to have a good job and the hope is, that I can get another one.
- B3nt
  
  Get a degree, redneck
- Mister44
  
  Not an Obama supporter, but I honestly think the Pres. (any Pres.) gets waaaay more credit and blame for the economy than they deserve. Outside forces (like the banks) have a lot more power over the economy than the Fed.
  
  Good luck with your job search – Im in a similar boat.
  - ldobe
    
    Outside forces (like the banks) have a lot more power
    
    I think you could have stopped there and been just as accurate……
    
    Just sayin
  - Wreckrob8
    
    So change but no hope then?
- http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch
  
  So they took yer jerb?
- voiceinthedistance
  
  John Smith, you retype bumper stickers remarkably well. Perhaps the Tea Party is hiring.
nixiebunny

It would be better if it left off the disclaimer at the end.
- Hugh Atkin
  
  I seriously considered leaving off disclaimer, credits etc and posting it from an entirely new account.
  
  Ultimately decided that there was more chance of it being seen (and also not being taken down) if I included the disclaimer and posted it from my main account.
  - Snig
    
    Thanks for doing it. A common topic here is the Uncanny Valley, which I’ve always felt was right next to Mitt’s home town. The video captures that well.
http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers

So is the new thing in American politics to throw the match to the opposition so that double terms are the norm? Romney is looking like Kerry Mk2. I assume it’s a divide and conquer type deal.
- ldobe
  
  Willard’s problem is using the exact same tone and pace every time he speaks publicly
  
  If he had the humanity to modulate like a real person naturally does, the clip would end up sounding like it was obviously chopped up. I got a hint of the chopping right at the end.
  
  Also: Congrats to Hugh Atkin, (I dabble in sound design) It’s bloody hard to use out of context clips to slice together something new, and this was either a great job, or Willard just made it too easy. I have the feeling it was a combo deal though.
scribomedia

Left or right, obfuscation is the name of the game.
- copperwatt
  
  Are you saying this video is an attempt to obfuscate? I thought it reads very clearly as parody even without the disclaimer. Quite subtle, but parody nonetheless.
Gerald Mander

The music (end title to “True Romance”?) was the best part of this. I think Romney could seamlessly play the Martin Sheen role in The Dead Zone, but this vid still seems kind of a cheap shot.
- http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy
  
  I’m with you JerryMander, except it’s motion video, not a still. Still, it’s a cheap shot to focus on Romney’s ambiguity on any issue at all. He’s rich and rich people know what is best even if they won’t tell you.
catgrin

While this is clearly a parody, anyone who’s been following the campaign to this point should be well aware of the Romney camp’s penchant for taking Obama’s vocal clips out of context and using them inappropriately. This has been done in several ads by the Romney campaign, but has not once been reported by the Obama campaign. In fact, the only national in favor of Obama that has sparked any controversy was not released by the campaign nor signed off on by the President. (“Romney killed my wife” was released by another group.)

Meanwhile, Romney has signed off on several ads which used out-of-context speech in a way it was not intended, or simply contained untruths, and even after his campaign was notified that the press was aware of the problems, they allowed the ads to continue to run. Examples of this include:

“You didn’t build that.” where Obama was actually referring to infrastructure in a previous sentence, not people’s own small businesses. (Politifact gave it a “false” rating after lots of debates back and forth. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jul/26/mitt-romney/putting-mitt-romneys-attacks-you-didnt-build-truth/)

“Welfare” This ad actually forced a response from Bill Clinton who was furious. In the ad, an announcer claims that Obama has made changes to welfare that make people no longer have to work for welfare. Not only was it untrue, Romney had to know it was untrue before the ad ever aired, because he was one of the several GOP Governors who asked for the changes in welfare that would allow states to experiment with alternate plans. All the plans still required work for welfare. (Politifact gave it a “pants on fire” rating. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/aug/07/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-says-barack-obamas-plan-abandons-tenet/)

Or there was the ad where they used the sound bite, “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.” (The very first ad from the Romney campaign.) Obama DID say that, but what he fully said in the speech was,”Sen. McCain’s campaign actually said, and I quote, if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.” So, Romney’s ad quoted Obama, quoting McCain, but failed to clarify that it was doing so. (Politifact gave it a “pants on fire” rating. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/nov/22/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-says-obama-said-if-we-keep-talking-abo/)

Romney’s perfectly happy to use another man’s words out of context in an effort to damage him. I think it’s damn well time someone did it to him, and I’m glad that the Obama campaign hasn’t stooped to his level. An independent supporter took the time to do it for them, and did it well.
daneyul

Very nicely done. Funny, and very up front about the fact the sound bites were edited. Yet it didn’t resort to name calling or dubious accusations.

This kind of thing is along the lines of the GOP’s saturation campaign of ads showing Kerry saying “I was for the war before I was against it”.

And it’s much, much more honest than the ridiculous and out of context uses of Obama’s “You didn’t build that” line they’re using now that seem designed for complete imbeciles.
- millie fink
  
  Maybe for imbeciles, but more likely for ignoramuses. I know a lot of people who believe the Romney camp’s lie on that line and spout it repeatedly. They’ve just never heard the full context of Obama’s comments. It’s not like the corporate media is going to spend any time correcting the decontextualized lie. They’re too cowed by another lie, the Right’s successful labeling of the “lamestream” media as the “liberal media.”
http://profiles.google.com/jwbaker Jeffrey Baker

Actually those look a bit like square roots in this font.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Yeah, those are square root signs. They’re fairly easy to find codes for.
  - voiceinthedistance
    
    ✔
    
    http://copypastecharacter.com
Andrew Eisenberg

This is a great video. It made me laugh at the man’s inconsistencies.

I would be interested in knowing where all of these video clips came from. More specifically, since the editing was so smooth, I’d like to know exactly what the individual clips were and where the breaks were. It would help me put things into context and (IMO) it would not take away from the video’s intended purpose.
- Hugh Atkin
  
  Hi Andrew
  
  Are you asking about the cuts in the audio clips or the video clips? Aside from that final shot of Mitt speaking directly to camera, the audio and video are sourced from different places.
  
  The video is taken entirely from different Romney ads available on his YouTube channel.
  
  The audio is taken mainly from different interviews, but also from a couple of speeches and debates. I used the C-SPAN and Fox News online video archives, both of which allow you to search time-indexed transcripts.
  
  I often only made short clips of the source audio and didn’t keep a record of the full context, but I’ve done my best and you can at least say where the cuts are.
  
  - I don’t get that spot…
  - folks who don’t really know who I am
  - I don’t know what the real reason was
  - tell people what I believe
  - I served as governor for four years
  - Like a mini-skirt he said it was short and revealing [recalling how his father described one of his own campaigns]
  - I was very clear
  - she was liberal
  - but I remember
  - I was conservative
  - who were conservative as well
  - Obviously he knows I’m pro-life
  - but I remember
  - they’d had no difficulty supporting my dad
  - abortion
  - and then in the January inauguration time period
  - I decided to stay
  - of considering a run for national office
  - and don’t have an idea why [talking about leadership styles, basically saying that someone told him he was a natural leader who lead without knowing why]
  - Everybody I talked to said it’s a bad idea [talking about Staples]
  - but I remember
  - I love debate
  - with debate and disagreement over issues
  - and in the case of Obamacare
  - say I disagree with this
  - let me correct myself
  - I supported the concept of the stimulus
  - the idea of an individual mandate or individual responsibility
  - but I remember
  - I oppose the, uh
  - it’s quite different than what the President did
  - And also with regards to gay marriage, I was very clear. I was opposed…
  - I looked at some of his policies and said “Gosh, I have exactly the opposite view today [Talking about Teddy Roosevelt - the edit here was to drop "of my" in place of "of his"]
  - One reason of course is that I hope to represent all Americans.
  - And I think the American people have concluded as I have.
  - the states have differences between them.
  - we have differing views about how to express that love
  - And I agree with the dissent
  - voice for the American people.
  - I believe in America.
  - I’d like to ask you to join with us: volunteer, donate, or just pass this message along to a friend. Thanks so much.
  
  Hope this more or less answers your question!